Sintering apparatus



Feb 15 1927 T. M. ALExovl-rs SINTERING APPARATUS Filed Feb,

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 m, w a. .MN .e Mm am; m

l v Las@ Feb l5 1927 T. M. ALExovl-rs SINTRING APPARATUS Filed Feb. 5, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 f )L Z 2 3 Z e@ I. 0 G m n Q f m i Patented'lFeb.

UNITED; .STATE-s' THOMAS M. ALExovrrs, or BAYONNE, NEW JERSEY, tnssIGrNoIt To JOHN f' WALT, or. NEW YORK, N. Y.

PATE

NT oEFiCE.

GEEENA- SINTEIMINGK. APPARATUS.

nppneation med Eebruary 5, i926. sen'ai Nol 86,223.

.My invention has relation to improve- -ments in holders for treating metalliferous products for the purpose of sitering or 'agglomerating the same, vsuch holders being ment and the movement .of grates Within the pan. The invention consists in the novel details of construction more fully set forth in the specification and. pointed out in the claims. v

In order that other. mechanism sucli as the car for charging the sintering pan and 'the igniter for igniting the. charge may pass freely over the pan, it is Ynecessary that no part of the dumping mechanism 'prject above the-top surface of the pan', and heretofore, there 4vwas mounted on the pan trimnion a gear segment (said segment being somewhat more than 180 degrees) said segment being driven by a pinion to rotate the panto inverted position for dumping after which the motion Wasreversed to restore the pan to yits normal position. In van ar- 'rangement of this lnd, it is necessary to exercise extreme caution inv dumping the pan so that the rotation thereof be stopped after passing through an arc of 180 degrees, otherl-wise the gear segment would run olf of the pinion and cause considerable diiiiculty and perhaps damage to the parts. "Furthermore,

' the motion of the pinonfhad' to be reversed for the purpose of reverting the pan to its normal position, itbeing impossible to conv tinuously rotate the pan throughan' arc of 360 degrees. Il have overcome these difficulties by providing a pair ofdrive pinions for the gear segment, said pinions being diametrically opposed and rotated in synchronism so that when a gearsegmentv passes beyond one pinion, the opposite pinion will continue to drive saidfseginent and at such time as the gear segment passes beyond the second`pinion, it will again have come into A mesh With the rst'pinion which continues the rotating action. -4 .Thus it is possible under .my improved gear segment to `spin the sinteringrpanJ through acomplete circle or. `4360 degrees which in fact is' done everytimethe pa is dumped.. It is also possible under this ar 'angement of ggears` torotate the pan more rapidly thany could heretofore be done, thus speeding up4 the -dumping operation,

and obviously, increasing the numberl of Aciprocated on rotating the'. pan to upright position and rocking thegrate bars to effect a shearing motion of the adjacent edges of dumping cov any two bars thus breaking out any sinter l that maybe lodged between the `bars or 4fused l to them. Further advantages 'of my im proved dumping mechanism Will be lbetter apparent from a detailed description of the invention in connection with the accompany.- i

ing drawings in which Fig. 1 is a top plan of one end of my improved sintering pan showing thel pinions for rotating the same and' driving mechanism associated therewith; Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section taken on the line 2f-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a. vertical transverse section taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a; sec- )tion similar to Fig. 4 except that the pan is shown partially rotated on its way( to its dumping position'ftlie Amaximum dumping' position, o f course, is the complete inversionof the pan; Fig. 6 is anenlarged view of one. pinion and part of thegear segment meshing therewith and the guard or shield therefor which prevents `ne material from falling between the teeth f said pinion and gear, and Fig. 7 is a cross .sectional detail' vtaken on the line 7-7 of Fig. 1.

Referring to ther drawings, 1 represents a hollow trunnion 2 mounted on suitable roller bearingsY 3 supported .on structural members 4, 4 each of said trunnions having air-tightconnection with a lfitting 5 which" leads to an exhausternot shown. These receive the trunnions 8,: 8 lof rocking grate wbars 9. yThe grate cbars 9 of' the end rows` vof bars have their'outer trunnions v8mount ed in an end'de`ad"-`pla'.e"10A securedto the inner surface of the end wall 11 of thepan 5 a sintering panhaving formed on each'end 9 top edge of the-pan so of Patent No.. `1921, and Vissued to vplate 15 is secured on a floor 1. In order to prevent the 'air from being drawn down along the sides of the holder, side dead plates 12 are secured againstthe side walls 13 of lthepan. The grate construction .thus far described is .also old in the art as Lrocking grates form the subject 1,388,335 dated .August 23, John E. Greenawalt. However, the means of producing the rocking motion about to'be described is new and forms a part of the subject matter *of -the present invention. Before proceeding, however, with the description of the grate bar rotating mechanism, the mechanism for rotating the sintering pan will be described.

The pan rotating mechanism comprises the following:

A gear segment 14 is bolted onto one end of the `pan 1, said gear being concentric with .the trunnion by a chord lying in the same plane as the that there are lno obstructions to interfere withthe other vapparatus (charge car and igniter not shown) operating' over ythe F of the -strcture housing the sintering apparatus and a f driving unit, comprising a motor vtwo Worm gear reducers 16, 16 1s `mounted ducers each comprise 18 Adirectly connected by a coupling-19 tothe motor shaft 20, and a worm gear 21 mounted on ashaft 22. Each worm gear` a coupling 23 to aj of the shafts 24, 40

Va commonv gear,

such the opposite direction,

` rotate the pinions l (Fig.' 6) and with it the pan M and on said base plate.

' The worm .gear rea worm 17 on a. shaft shaft 22 is4 connected by counter shaft 24 mounted in bearings 25, 25 fixed on a base block 26. 1

Pinions 27, 27 are fixed on the extremities 24, said pinions meshing with the gear 14 at substantially diametrically opposite points. I n order readily to get the two sets of ear couplings 19 has seven holes 0` inthe anges (Fig. 7), while the othercoupling has eight holes. Therefore, 4by turning the members Qt one coupling 19 relatively one hole in oie direction and the members" of the other coupling 19 relatively one hole in the positions pinions 27 maybe readily adjusted to the degree of accuracy necessary for the mesh-A 'ing of said pinions with the segment gearV 14.

In order to'rotate the pan 1 to dumping the motor M is set in operation to 27, 27 in the same-directionfsaid pinions driving the gear segment 14 in the'direction indicated by the .arrow 1. Obviously, any fine material which is` lodged oni the upper surface'ofthe end Wall 11 of the pan will slide downwardly as said pan is tilted and,` of course,1f there is any such mateposition,

ion.'

- onbe half that of the outer 2 and its top edge defined pan. A basebottom of the pan trains to inesh with oth4 pinions 27 being driven from one motor shaft 20, one of the of thepleting the 'guard being so formed as to parallel the gear teeth wn to their point of intersec- -tion with the teeth of pinion 27, the guard then enveloping half ofthe pin- The the upper seoment 14 is reduced in thickness tolabout teeth so that as the ge'ar travels downwardly, any material thatmay be discharged' from the top flange thereof will pass through the space left by the thin tooth as it passes through the pin-v ion teeth and will fall therefrom after this thin tooth is beyond the pinion. GuardsL 28 are provided for both pinions 27 and are secured to the under side of va platform orV plate 29 supported by the pan rotating mechanism (Fig. 2'), the

inner faceof the guard is broughtas closely to the teeth as possible, and the last tooth on each side of the gear 10` channels 30, 30 above edge of theplate 29 adjacent to the pan lr` f being shaped to conform to the pan and gear 14 (see dotted outline of platform 29 in Fig. 1).

.Referring again to the grate bars 9, each of said; grate bars has a lever arm 31 depending from its under side, the extremity of said lever armprojecting into a slot's ih'the bar weight 32, said bar Weight as will be seen in' Fig. 4, is slidingly mounted in two pairs of guides 33, projecting from the 1 and the bar 32 extends transversely across the pan with a clearance space 34 between the end of the bar and the rightside ofthe pan when the panqis in its normal position (Fig. 4). I'f the pan is now rotated to 'a Aposition as shown in Fig. 5 which is the angle of friction of the bar weight, contact `vwith the right .handside o f the pan and in so doing imposes a sudden motion to the grate bars 9, rocking said barsl on their trunnions and roducing a shearing effect; between the a jacent-edges of any two bars, thusdislod'ging any material that maybe fused tofthe bars so that this` material will be ejected from the pan on comrtation thereof to inverted position. By the time the pan has been completely inverted, the contents thereof said weight will slide so as to will have been discharged and. the pan may Y vnow be reverted by contlnuing the rotation thereof in the same dircetion until the pank 1 has been rotated through an are of 360 degrees and has returned to its normal position as shown in Fig. 4. Obviously, when thekpan has been rotated degrees beyond the position shown in Fig. 5, the bar weight 32 will slide back to its normal position and rock thegrate bars 9 to their normal positions as shown in Fig. 4. From the foregoing it is apparent that the operation of dumping my improved sintering pan is eX- tremely simple, requiring merely that the motor M be set in motion, allowing the gears tol rotate the pan slowly through a complete circle, the contents of the pan being discharged while the pan is inverted and the grate bars being rocked to facilitate the discharge of material from the pan and being restored totheir normal positions, all

of which takes place automatically duringthe rotation ofthe pan.

Having described my invention, I-claim: 1. A sintering apparatus comprising a `holder,'a plurality vof grate bars pivotally mounted in said holder, means forv inverting said holder, and. means arranged below said grate bars for collectively oscillating a group of the bars on inverting the holder.

2. A sintering apparatus comprising a holder, a plurality of grate bars pivotally mounted in said holder, means for inverting said holder, and means arranged below the grate bars and connected to a series of said bars for oscillating simultaneously said series of bars on moving the .holder to inverted' position.

3.- A sintering apparatus comprising a holder, a plurality of grate bars pivotally mounted in said holder, means for inverting said holder, and means-,arranged below said bars adapted to be actuated on inverting the pan to impart movement collectively to a group of said bars by percussion.

4. A sintering apparatus comprising a holder, a plurality of grate bars pivotallyl mounted in said holder,` means for inverting saidl holder, a bar weight mounted below the grate bars and extending transversely thereto, an arm depending from each of said bars .and traversing a slot in the bar wei ht, said bar weight being slidable to one si e ofthe -holder on inverting the same, and operating to rock the' grate bars in its movement.

5. A sintering apparatus comprising a holder having trunnions on which the holdcris rotatable, a gear-segment secured to one end of'said holder, saidgear segment lying wholly below the top surface of the holder,

' a pair of pinions adapted to mesh with said gear and mounted at substantially diamet rically opposite points, and means for rotat, inv said pinions 1n synchronism whereby the hoder may be rotated by either 'or both of said pinions. 6. Av sintering apparatus 'comprising a lrotatable holder, a gear segment secured to one end of said holder, a pair-of pinions adapted to mesh with said gear segment,

radapted to mesh with said ,gear segment,

v bars to normal position on continuingthe roshield for the pinions and that part of the i gear immediately above.

8. A sintering apparatus comprising a rotatable holder, a gear segment secured to one end of said holder, a pair of pinions adapted. to mesh with said gear segment, said pinions being spaced relative to one another so that one of them is always in mesh with the gear segment, means for rotating said pinions in synchronism, and means for shielding the gear and pinions to prevent fine material from entering therebetween.

9. A sintering apparatus comprising a Y rotatable holder, a gear segment secured to one end of said holder, a pair' of pinions said pinions being spaced relative to one another so that one of them is always in mesh withA gear segment, a driving motor for the pinions, and a reducing gear between each of said pinions and the motor.

l10. A sintering apparatus comprising a Y rotatable holder, a gear segment secured to on'e end of said holder, a pair of pinions adapted to vmesh with said .gear segment,

said pinions being spaced relative to one an- 10U other` so that one of them is always in mesh with the gear segment,- means for rotating said pinions in synchronism, a platform disposed above said pinion rotating means, the margin of said platform adjacent to` the holder conforming to the shape of said holder and segment gear and being sligthly spaced therefrom, and a shield for the pinions and that part of the gear immediately above, said shield being secured'to the underside of said platform.

1 1.' A Vsintering apparatus comprising a holder, a plurality of grate bars pivotally mounted in said holder, means for rotatingsaid holder, and means for rocking the grate bars away from their normal supporting plane effective thereon durin the rotation of the pan to inverted position, said grate barrocking means operating to restore the tation of the holder.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix m signature.

'rHoMAs M ALnXovrrs. 

